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Oklahoma City halts Denver's six-game streak

By Benjamin Hochman The Denver Post

Posted:
01/16/2013 11:16:55 PM MST

OKLAHOMA CITY -- He's one of those guys you either hate or you hate. He's nasty and gnarly, jawing and clawing his way through a game. Russell Westbrook. He's all grit, they'd say in Oklahoma City, all gall, they'd say in any other city.

But there he was Wednesday, hustling (russelling?) for 28 monster minutes. In the Thunder's deluge of a win against Denver, 117-97, the point guard scored 32 points with four assists.

"Sometimes he attacked (our bigs), sometimes he shot the jumper, and he had a rhythm in both areas, very much just attacking us," Nuggets coach George Karl said of Westbrook. "We never got control. ... They were going after our pick-and-roll defense, and our big guys were always late."

The Nuggets had won six consecutive games entering Wednesday, but had played an exhausting overtime game Tuesday in Denver. It showed.

This thing was over at halftime, when the Thunder led by 20 and Westbrook had 25 points. When his 28 minutes were up, Westbrook finished 12-for-20 from the field and 8-for-9 from the line. Even when Denver fouled him hard, like it did on one particular play in the paint, the cool customer composed his bodysomehow and still hit the floater during the foul.

The Nuggets' leading scorer on the night was Kosta Koufos with 16. He would have been the fourth-highest scorer on the Thunder, which had Westbrook (32), Kevin Durant (20) and Kevin Martin (20).

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And it wasn't like Westbrook was doing it with a bunch of 3s (he only attempted one, which he missed). And it wasn't like he was just making from a certain spot. Really, he made from all over -- he was 4-for-6 from inside the paint, 4-for-7 from 8 to 16 feet and 4-for-6 from 16 to 23 feet.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets? Yikes. They couldn't get anything going. It seemed like the Nuggets (24-17) were constantly just trying to keep up in all facets of the game. Danilo Gallinari and Andre Iguodala were clanking early and often.

"No excuses for how we came out and laid an egg tonight," Nuggets guard Andre Miller said. "We rely on our running a lot, so anytime a team is putting up a lot of points and we have to take the ball out of the basket and get into an execution game, it's not something we're strong at doing. ... The tempo was in their favor."

Perhaps George Karl jinxed them. Before the game, the Nuggets coach gushed about his top players lately, in regards to their consistency. Well, besides Gallinari and Miller, Ty Lawson had one of his worst games ever. With 9:43 left in the second (yes, second), he picked up his third foul. Ty finished with two points in 20 minutes with one assist and one rebound.

"The first play of the game, I tried to make sure he didn't get an easy bucket," Lawson said. "And then the second foul, I felt like I didn't really foul him, but that's how things go. I wanted to play through it, because I don't foul that much, but coach took me out."

Koufos was really the only bright spot, at least on offense. He made all six field-goal attempts, and collected nine rebounds too. JaVale McGee was also 5-for-6 from the field (15 points) but it would be a mistake to say that Denver dominated the paint. On the contrary, they had their moments.

But the Nuggets turned it over 21 times amid a smackdown (the Thunder scored 28 points off those turnovers). And Denver shot 2-for-15 from 3-point range, after making some key 3s the night before against Portland.

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